An amendment to a 2022 ordinance, formally criminalizing conversion therapy for minors within Akron city limits, was passed June 3 by Akron City Council after the proposed legislation was placed on hold. Conversion therapy is a discredited practice by doctors that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Mayor Shammas Malik withdrew the legislation to allow time for pro-LGBTQ+ community groups to provide feedback, which they had not been given the opportunity to do. City administrators met with representatives from Equality Ohio, PFLAG, The Trevor Project and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, according to a statement from Malik.
In addition to not having a chance to discuss the amendment prior to a possible vote by council, local and national LGBTQ+ groups expressed concern that a ban might not be the most effective solution.
What is conversion therapy?
Conversion therapy, which is often targeted toward LGBTQ+ youth, is a practice discredited by doctors that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
“I consider conversion therapy to be child abuse. And it is child abuse. It causes mental injury, and can have other harmful and detrimental effects for youth,” said Rebecca Callahan, the executive director of CANAPI, an Akron-based agency that works to empower LGBTQ+ individuals.
There are at least 72 conversion therapy practitioners in Ohio, according to a 2023 report from The Trevor Project, whose goal is to end suicide among young people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Signal Akron talked with representatives from LGBTQ+ groups, along with members of the mayor’s administration, about Akron’s previous ban, how the new ban is different and the process the legislation followed.
Akron’s previous conversion therapy ban
The city’s initial conversion therapy ban passed in October 2022 and gave the Akron Civil Rights Commission the jurisdiction to investigate complaints, hold hearings and issue penalties.
After the ban passed, the ACRC began to discuss how it would approach investigations, and although no complaints were filed after the ban passed, the ACRC members “recognized the severe limitations of their expertise,” said Akron’s Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt.
Ellen Lander Nischt, the chair of the ACRC, said the complication with the ACRC taking charge of the investigations was the commission’s lack of staff, resources, and training needed to address the complaints. ACRC is a volunteer organization.
“We were also concerned about ‘Do we have the infrastructure to maintain confidentiality?’ Nischt said. “We talked about ‘Are there going to be dead names in public records?’ And so it just became more complex.”
When the ACRC ultimately decided it could not handle the investigations, members consulted with the Akron Law Department and researched penalty models in other cities. Several Ohio cities have adopted conversion therapy bans, including Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.
Akron’s solution is a first-degree misdemeanor penalty. Under the new amendment, practitioners are subject to a maximum fine of $1,500 and up to six months of jail time.
“Our intent was not to seek a criminal penalty, necessarily. Our intent was to ensure that if these cases are reported, they can be dealt with appropriately,” Pitt said.
LGBTQ+ community groups’ concerns
Equality Ohio’s Maria Bruno said her organization’s view focuses on a restorative justice model, meaning that a solution is found through a civil remedy, rather than seeking a criminal penalty. Restorative justice can involve a victim and offender meeting face-to-face, with the intent that the offender comes to understand their impact and the harm toward the victim is repaired.
“Ultimately, the remedy is to have minors protected from the practice of people promoting conversion therapy,” Bruno said. “So the ideal outcome involves that person in the future no longer practicing conversion therapy, and that the victim is made whole to the degree that’s humanly possible.”
In contrast to a civil penalty, Bruno also felt that a criminal penalty might not be an equitable solution.
“My general perspective on the matter is if there is a criminal penalty, it will be used more predominantly against poor people, against people of color, against less resourced and less connected people,” Bruno said. “That’s just the reality of our criminal justice system.”
The city’s hope is that the amendment creates a direct line for affected individuals to report an incident.
“The city wants to ensure that the legislation is not just in name only, but is practicable and can actually be enforced in some way to protect our families and minors,” Pitt said.
There were also questions about the potential implications Akron’s legislation might have at the state level.
“I think there was some concern about the impact that this could have on the statewide politics of this issue and whether or not it would be potentially pushing or provoking, maybe, some kind of retaliatory statewide legislation,” Nischt said.
How the city will conduct investigations going forward
When it comes to enforcing the legislation, Bruno said it will be easier to impose penalties on medical practitioners than religious conversion therapy programs, due to religious exemptions.
“Licensing bodies have also played a big role in sort of preventing that within the secular realm, because a lot of licensing bodies have explicitly, including Ohio’s, said this is not best practices,” Bruno said.
The updated legislation puts the jurisdiction in the hands of the city’s juvenile detectives, which Pitt said is “one of the natural groups who have the expertise to interview, and the sensitivity to interview minors, on matters regarding human sexuality and trauma.”
Pitt said that if conversion therapy reports do come to light, in addition to completing the investigations, the detectives will have the resources to refer victims to the necessary services, such as Child Protective Services.
